Since few days Cesare Battisti is a common prisoner. The prison regime of the former terrorist, arrested in January 2019 in Bolivia, hitherto held in a high-security regime, has been declassified. The provision of the prison administration was notified to him in the prison of Ferrara, where he has been since June 2021. And now he could soon be transferred to Parma.
It was Battisti himself who urged the measure with various instances, reiterating to the magistrates the desire “to serve the sentence positively and constructively”. In the Ferrara prison he lived in semi-isolation, cultivating the vegetable garden by himself (the Galeottorto project) and following a course in creative writing.
The lawyer: “There is no danger, he will serve his sentence”
“The previous one was a wrong decision: the last crime committed by Cesare Battisti dates back to 1979, there is no danger of a return to terrorism and declassifying his prison regime is the correct choice that nothing changes with respect to the penalty he must discount and that does not constitute any offense to the victims. It is an internal decision within the Dap and that should not be exploited politically “, he says Davide Steccanelladefender of the former leader of the Pac.
The Dap: “He will not be a prisoner like everyone else anyway”
The downgrading of the prison regime for Cesare Battisti from high to medium security is an administrative decision, taken by the maximum security office of the Department of Penitentiary Administration, which will continue to have the management of the former CAP terrorist. Battisti therefore remains treated differently from ordinary prisoners. This is what sources of the Dap explain, underlining that it is an administrative measure, which does not pass from the political level, and takes into account a series of favorable and circular opinions.
The path starts in May, with an opinion in favor of the declassification of the Milan DDA, by the head of the anti-terrorism pool Alberto Nobili, a magistrate who investigated the CAP and questioned Battisti after his arrest. According to what is learned, “the absence of proselytism risk” is highlighted and the path of “critical re-evaluation of crimes” is underlined.
Battisti will not, however, be a prisoner like all the others, but management remains with the maximum security office of the Dap, the same who signed the decision. He goes from one prison circuit to another, where he will continue to serve a life sentence.
Favorable opinion of the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office
In recent months, the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office has expressed, through the head of the Milanese anti-terrorism pool Alberto Nobili, an opinion in favor of the ‘declassification’, then ordered by the penitentiary administration, from high security to municipality of the prison regime for Cesare Battisti. An opinion forwarded to the Dap and in which, as far as it was known, it was indicated that the former terrorist had a dissociation from the armed struggle, that the group in which he was active, that is the CAP, has dissolved, because it was dismantled between ’79 and ’80, and that no investigations are underway against it.
FdI on the attack. “Aid to Red Terrorism”
But now the decision of the leaders of the Dap triggers controversy. He is the responsible justice of the Brothers of Italy, Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove to attack the decision: “Last aid to the red terrorism. The terrorist would pass from the high security regime to the common one, thus seeing the prospect of obtaining future benefits. An aberration! After years of inaction and escape from his criminal responsibilities, just tasted the Italian prison regime the terrorist criminal obtains the declassification to common prisoner. A shame! Even more a shame that the DAP is taking this very serious and infamous decision a few days after the change of government. The impunity of the red terrorism is certainly not politics that the center-right government intends to field “,
And always FdI, with the deputy Galeazzi Bignamiannounces a parliamentary question: “Battisti is and must remain in Ferrara in a high security regime as it is for terrorists like him. His transfer to the common regime in Parma must be blocked as well as the declassification of his prison regime. Fratelli d’Italia will present an immediate question will immediately verify what the DAP is doing right now, a few days after the change of government, and why this very serious decision would have been taken “.
“My middle name explained to Battisti who changed our lives with five shots”
The guarantor of the detainees: “Correct measure, does not affect the sentence”
In defense of the provision, the guarantor of the Emilia Romagna prisoners takes the field: “To judge these
provisions of the penitentiary administration it is necessary to know the norms and laws. To say that it is not acceptable is to admit that you do not know – he observes Roberto Cavalieri – This person has followed the regulatory procedure correctly, the prison administration has recognized what it could not fail to recognize. Declassification does not mean that the prison administration cancels the fact that he has committed terrorist offenses, but it is a management and logistical issue. It doesn’t affect the kind of sentence he got. He means that he becomes a common prisoner. ”
Terrorism
The silences and distinctions of the writers who signed the appeal for Cesare Battisti
Paolo G. Brera
Victims’ families: “The important thing is that you remain in prison”
“The important thing is that you remain in prison and save your sentence for the murder of my brother and others”. He states this to beraking latest news Maurizio Campagna, brother of Andreapublic security officer serving at the Digos in Milan, killed on April 19, 1979 in an attack later claimed by the group of Armed Proletarians for Communism, after the news of the declassification of the prison regime of the former leader of the Pac Cesare Battisti from high security in common.
“I think that Italian justice works and if it has been done it is lawful – he observes regarding the declassification – Happy for him: enjoy the years in prison that remain as a normal prisoner even if he will always remain a murderer”.
“I will ensure that this request is blocked because the violation of respect for the victims must, once and for all, stop”, says Alberto Torregiani, son of Pierluigi Torregiani, killed 40 years ago by a Pac commando in front of the jewelry store in family and in turn was injured, saying he was “not at all” in agreement with the declassification of the prison regime of former PAC leader Cesare Battisti from high security to common. A passage that, according to Torregiani, risks being the prelude to “further requests” with the “danger, the not so subtle attempt, to shorten the sentence”.
“I learn from the newspapers the decision of the Dap to declassify the prison position of Cesare Battisti from Queen of security to a common prisoner – underlines Torregiani – I do not understand the will to accept this request and condition of the terrorist Battisti, when, and I remember very well, in Not so long ago, he ranted for having those same security rights that he did not have in the Calabrian prison, underlining the danger to his life “.